Competing interface and bulk anisotropies in Co-rich TbCo amorphous thin films

We study the magnetic properties of amorphous Tb_x Co 100 − x films with x in the range 8−12 at% and with a thickness of 5−100 nm. In this range the magnetic properties are shaped by a competition between a perpendicular bulk magnetic anisotropy and an in-plane interface anisotropy, in addition to the changes in magnetization. This results in a temperature controllable spin reorientation transition from in-plane to out-of-plane which is thickness and composition dependent. Furthermore, we show that perpendicular anisotropy is recovered throughout an entire TbCo/CoAlZr multilayer, where neither TbCo nor CoAlZr single layers exhibit perpendicular anisotropy. This illustrates the important role of the TbCo interfaces in the overall effective anisotropy.